'Robocall' probe puts Tory campaign in Guelph under microscope

Elections Canada is investigating whether robocalls in dozens of ridings across Canada, but mainly in southern Ontario, mislead voters.

Photograph by: Postmedia files
, The Windsor Star

OTTAWA — An Elections Canada investigation into black ops "robocalls" was focused on a Conservative party campaign in Guelph, Ont., documents obtained by Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen show.

A court order executed on an Edmonton call centre in November specifically refers to records related to the campaign of Conservative candidate Marty Burke in Guelph, where many voters reported receiving pre-recorded messages that falsely claimed their polling stations had moved.

Since reports of that investigation came to light last week, Liberals and New Democrats have reported fraudulent calls in dozens of ridings across the country and the Conservatives have called on anyone with information to send it to Elections Canada — but the documents suggest any such investigation was more narrowly focused, at least in November.

A production order executed on RackNine Inc. in Edmonton compelled the company to turn over all emails, billing records and other correspondence between it and "the Conservative party general election campaign in Guelph."

The court order also required the Conservative-connected company to hand over the user names, passwords and IP addresses of anyone associated with the Guelph campaign who used RackNine between March 26 and May 31.

The order also required RackNine to release records of calls that used the number 450-760-7746. The Bell Canada phone number in Joliette, Que., appeared on call displays of some recipients of the fraudulent election day calls in Guelph.

Sources close to the investigation have indicated the number was assigned to a disposable "burner" cellphone, purchased with cash and then used to call RackNine.

The Conservatives ultimately lost Guelph, with candidate Marty Burke finishing more than 6,000 votes behind Liberal incumbent Frank Valeriote. Burke, who works as an airline pilot, was out of town this week and could not be reached.

The production order also shows Elections Canada suspects "a person or persons unknown" of committing some of the most serious offences listed under the Elections Act, including preventing or endeavouring to prevent electors from voting and inducing them to refrain from voting.

The offences carry maximum penalties of $5,000 fines, five years imprisonment or both.

The document was issued by Nov. 23 in Alberta provincial court. It was obtained based on sworn information from Al Mathews, the former RCMP inspector who is leading the investigation.

The detailed list of records covered by the production order specifies comprehensive listings of all schedules, recordings and the list of numbers of recipients of the calls in the 519 and 226 area codes on election day — a potentially enormous data set, depending on the numbers of calls made.

The owner of RackNine, Matt Meier, said he is co-operating fully with Elections Canada and providing the agency with whatever it needs. The production order makes clear that RackNine is not under investigation.

Elections Canada acknowledges it is investigating the Guelph incident but has refused to comment on whether it is investigating allegations of other calls, including hard-to-track harassment calls traced to a North Dakota number often linked to credit card scams.

In 2008, when then-Conservative MP Gary Lunn was in a four-way race with star Green candidate Briony Penn in the British Columbia riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, it looked as if her campaign would get a boost from the mid-campaign departure of NDP candidate Julian West.

West withdrew too late to have his name taken off the ballot. On election day, thousands of voters received a robocall urging them to vote for West, which the NDP didn't send out.

Lunn, who won by 2,621 votes in 2008, was defeated by Elizabeth May in 2011.

Elections Canada did conduct an investigation, but concluded that calls supporting a legitimate candidate were not illegal, since the NDP candidate was actually on the ballot.

A complainant who talked to the investigator, though, said he was told they dropped the investigation because of the difficulty in tracing a "spoofed" caller-ID number.

Since then, Elections Canada seems to have improved its game. To trace the Guelph robocalls, investigators managed to trace the number, methodically tracking it from phone carrier to phone carrier to arrive at RackNine.

Joyce Murray, MP for Vancouver Quadra and one of only two West Coast Liberals in the House of Commons, said "several" supporters in her riding got late-night calls from people purporting to be Liberals who were "harassing and rude."

The calls came from a number in North Dakota, the same U.S. state that, according to Postmedia News-Ottawa Citizen investigation, was the source of vote suppression calls in a number of ridings across Canada before the May 2 vote.

"This may be illegal and is what you might think a banana republic would do," Murray said in an interview.

"We think this is highly undermining of our reputation as a fair and democratic country that adheres to the rule of law. Clearly this cannot be swept under the rug by the Conservatives as they're trying to do."

Murray later issued a statement through a spokeswoman saying that while she has no "absolutely no evidence" Tory rival Deborah Meredith or Meredith's campaign team were involved in the calls, "it's quite obvious who was set to gain from these calls."

The Quadra campaign was a fairly close two-way race, with Murray taking 42.2 per cent of votes cast to Meredith's 38.6 per cent. Meredith said Monday she knows "absolutely nothing" about alleged voter suppression calls and said such a tactic is "stupid."

Elections Canada is now being inundated with complaints and reports of telephonic mischief from across the country.

Veteran election lawyer Jack Siegel, of Blaney McMurtry in Toronto, who often works for the Liberals, said nobody needs to wonder whether the agency will investigate.

"I would be very, very surprised other than they will take the whole array of calls for investigation and complaints of this happening elsewhere quite seriously," he said. "I've got to question the resources they've got to bring to bear on it."

Siegel said he has more often complained about overzealousness of Elections Canada than lassitude.

Elections Canada appears to be accelerating its probe of the Guelph campaign. An interview with one campaign worker, originally scheduled for several weeks from now, was pushed up to last week, after a Postmedia-Ottawa Citizen investigation revealed the extent of the agency's efforts to track down the source of the calls.

That a person or persons unknown, on May 2, 2011, at or near the City of Guelph and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, did wilfully prevent or endeavour to prevent an elector from voting in an election contrary to paragraph 281 (g) of the Canada Elections Act;

And by so doing committed an offence contrary to paragraph 491 (3) (d) of the Canada Elections Act, S.C. 2000, c.9 as amended;

AND

That a person or persons unknown, on May 2, 2011, at or near the City of Guelph and elsewhere in the Province of Ontario, did, by pretence or contrivance, induce or attempt to induce persons to vote or refrain from voting or to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate and by so doing committed an offence contrary to paragraph 482 (b) of the Canada Elections Act, S.C. 2000, c.9 as amended.

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